latevslatónWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: late is a verb, latón is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“late” is a verb and “latón” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,077
“late” frequency rank
#31,863
“latón” frequency rank
42940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature late latón
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de latir. Aleación de cobre y cinc

Where the eye mixes late and latón

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
late
5 ch
latón

Look-alike desk: late vs latón

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: late is [ˈlat̪e] while latón is [laˈt̪õn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

late is recorded at frequency rank #11,077, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlat̪e]. latón is at rank #31,863, tagged as anoun, pronounced [laˈt̪õn].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42940, this pair ranks #145,432 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of late vs latón

Shared letters: alt. Private to "late": e. Private to "latón": .

"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "latón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latealte · laet · latte · llate · ltae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "late" for "latón" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "late" is a verb and "latón" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "late" vs "latón" - which ranks higher?
"late" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,077 in our Spanish list, against #31,863 for "latón". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "late" and "latón" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "latón" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,432 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "late" and "latón" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "latón vs lito". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #145,432 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list